Everflowing Etherium

Jacob Van LunenWednesday, June 16, 2010

ello and welcome to Archenemy Week here at magicthegathering.com. Next Level Bant has taken Standard by storm and I'm here to share my latest budget creation, designed to show Next Level Bant players everywhere who their archenemy really is.

Jund, White-Blue Control, and Mythic are still beating up the Pro Tour Qualifier circuits, so we need to have a plan against them too. I had a lot of trouble working on a new Standard deck for this week. Standard seems to be more and more streamlined every time I delve into the format. This time around, I believe the homogeneous nature of the format gives me an excellent target to aim for.

Master Transmuter has been one of my favorite creatures ever since the first time I played with it in Limited. I wrote about a Master Transmuter concoction last year that used Thousand-Year Elixir to combo out some truly ridiculous turns. Thousand-Year Elixir had rotated out of Standard, but a careful examination of the most popular decks in the format informs us that cheap spot removal is a rarity in competitive Standard decks today. This gives us an incredible opportunity to abuse Master Transmuter.

Let me explain the concept. A format dominated by decks that are more interested in their own plays than their opponents' is very ripe for the invasion of a deck that has the greatest power level once all of its pieces have been assembled. Master Transmuter allows us to do very powerful things in every match-up.

For example, how would your Mythic opponent feel if you dropped a Platinum Angel onto the table in Game 1? How would your Jund opponent feel when you transmute a Sphinx of the Steel Wind onto the battlefield on turn four during their combat step?

The options available here give us a lot of auto-win cards in specific match-ups. The biggest problem with the deck is its weakness to planeswalkers in Game 1. The deck has an incredible plan against almost every type of strategy, but Oblivion Ring can only do so much. White-Blue Control and Planeswalker Control can dominate games quickly when they get a planeswalker early. It's difficult to make a powerful Master Transmuter strategy that puts enough early pressure on these types of decks.

Luckily, Pithing Needle works beautifully out of the sideboard. Pithing Needle provides us with an artifact that can be transmuted and it shuts down a specific planeswalker permanently. One copy of Pithing Needle in the main is fine, but I'd be worried about adding any more. Having dead cards is too big a price to pay these days. The first one is still fine against the field. Naming Jace is nice against a huge chunk of people, against Jund you name Raging Ravine or Sarkhan, the Mad, and against red decks you name Kargan Dragonlord.

Tidehollow Sculler: The disruption provided by this gentleman is incredible. Once you get to the later stages of the game you can transmute them into play during your opponent's draw step. The best trick with Master Transmuter is to play a Tidehollow Sculler and bounce it back to your hand with the trigger on the stack. Tidehollow Sculler's Castigate trigger happens after the leave play trigger, so you can remove a card in your opponent's hand forever.

Wall of Omens: It's just that good. It may not seem like this card is right for this deck, but Wall of Omens buys us the time we need to set up all kinds of absurdity. It cantrips, so you don't have to worry about it watering down your deck in the match-ups where it isn't very strong. I wasn't lying in my preview article, this card is probably going to be in more than 80% of the decks I design that are playing white.

Prophetic Prism: This card looks like it was designed specifically for this deck. The extra card helps us assemble key pieces and the mana fixing is very welcome. The true strength of Prophetic Prism is its synergy with Master Transmuter. Transmuting the Prism actually nets card advantage. It's also a very nice thing to sit on with your transmuter.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind: Jund still exists, and this card is very hard for them to beat. It's especially comical when you're hit with a Blightning and you drop one of these in the graveyard only to cast Sharuum the Hegemon on turn five and put them in a truly terrible spot.

Platinum Angel: There are a lot of decks that simply cannot beat a Platinum Angel. The text box is powerful enough to deserve the two spots. I had the pleasure of playing against a few Mythic decks with this hunk of metal on the table. Games get very difficult for them to win.

Sharuum the Hegemon: Sharuum provides the deck with inevitability. If there's something your opponent can do to break up your voltron, then Sharuum will almost certainly reassemble it for you. Oh, and it also happens to be a 5/5 flyer. It blocks Vengevines all day long and kills planeswalkers promptly.

The deck performed very well in these games. I played many matches with the deck this week and I was most frustrated with early planeswalkers. The new Turboland deck that was played by LSV and others in Seattle last weekend also seems like a difficult match-up. The deck is very well positioned against a good portion of the Standard field, though. I strongly recommend putting it together for your next local Standard tournament. Enjoy!